What positives has Liberalism brought to the world?
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Thanks to Liberal philosophers and thinkers we have gained insight into human agency. Liberalism gave agency to individuals. The focus went away from an all powerful state that can do no wrong, a state devoid of humanity to a fallible state that answers to the people. Liberalism also redefined the way the state and the people interact because it redefined the concept of freedom. It gives people a sphere of individual freedom that is inviolable, enabling people to keep the state out of personal affairs while defining affirmative liberties that define how humans interact politically with each other and the state.
Liberalism gave us the French Revolution, it gave us market economics (Adam Smith), and that thing I love the most our Bill of Rights. In short, it gave us Western society as we know it and love it today.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/liberalism/
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke/
Political science major
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Good answer. Not sure that I completely agree, but all the same, good answer.
@philipy I don't think that's what albanian means. I think he means that Liberalism is agency, freedom to act.
John Locke would have loved this answer.
"Liberalism" meaning "willing to change anything ever" is not a normal use of the term. By that definition, Hitler deciding to remove Jews from the face of the Earth would be an act of Liberalism, wouldn't it? As would any change from any status quo in any direction whatsoever.
Constitutionalism, the concept that instead of someone having a divine right to rule, the right to rule is a social contract between the ruler and the ruled.
Multi-party government. Instead of one group or family ruling, a system of government should allow for the ascension to power of different groups. The group out of power is know as the loyal opposition, so that loyalty is given to the state instead of a particular group.
Universal suffrage. Instead of limiting the vote to men of a particular color who own property and are descended from families in the ruling class, voting is open to anyone who is old enough to vote and not legally barred from voting because of metal incapacitation or criminal conviction.
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Liberal as in being liberal with your money?
Ideas that the democratic party have come up with?
Liberal sex acts?
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The fact that Jeff put the question in the category "Western Philosophy" is a strong hint of what he meant. But given that the term "Liberal" is used differently in the US and Europe, almost as near opposites, and the potential for confusion with between the philosophy and the the way the term is used in US politics, probably an extra note of clarification would have been useful.
I might answer Jeff's actual question later. I can't do it justice in a quick answer. :)
It is a big vague. Even U.S. conservatives used to be called liberals.
Now days people equate liberal v. conservative with certain politcal parties. We do need to remember that sometimes conservatives do have some liberal ideas.
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the ideas of personal dignity,
freedom of expression,
religious tolerance,
private ownership of property,
universal human rights,
and government of the people.
In general liberalism places a premium on equal opportunity and rights of individuals. Liberals want to limit the powers of political leaders. They favour free enterprise and a open system of government. However, since individual freedom and equality do not always fit smoothly together some modern liberals have tended to lean more favourably toward equality over individual freedom. This leads these liberal to support anti-discrimination laws, education for all, welfare for the poor, unemployment benefits, universal health care, and taxing the rich at a higher rate than for the poor.
Culturally Liberals do not degrade their heritage and traditions but sometimes they feel these traditions don’t have to be a necessity in their lives or they are “old-fashion” and “retarded” to the 21st century.
Religiously Liberals do not consider every single base of their religion as an absolute.
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